He was the most famous and infamous mobster since Al Capone: the handsome, expensively groomed Godfather who beat rap after rap to become a folk hero to the masses and a nightmare to the forces of law and order. He was also a vicious killer, a ruthless manipulator, a Machiavellian master of intrigue and double cross, and an ardent womanizer, whose rise to the head of America's most powerful crime family was marked by corpses, lies, and betrayals. By using FBI tapes and a host of sources on both sides of the law, star organized crime reporters Jerry Capeci and Gene Mustain tell the whole, true, uncensored story of John Gotti. With scores of fearfully fascinating characters, brutal vignettes of life and death inside the Cosa Nostra, tense courtroom dramas, and ominous answers to the question of how much power Gotti still wields, this is a great gangster story and the definitive account of John Gotti's rise and fall.

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Product description

About the Author

Jerry Capeci is considered one of the world's foremost authorities on the Mafia and organized crime. He covered the crime beat for both the New York Daily News and the New York Post (and was the only newspaperman to sneak his way into Carlo Gambino's funeral in 1976) for more than 20 years. He is the co-author of Murder Machine, the terrifying saga of Roy DeMeo's bloodthirsty Mafia crew, and Gotti: Rise & Fall. A native of the mean streets of Bath Beach, Brooklyn, he now lives in Manhattan.

Top customer reviews

First of all let me say I don't like these two authors. As writers they're not very good and are complete sell outs. Just a visit to Capeci's ganglandnews site shows you how much he shamelessly plugs his own books on pretty much every page. It's very amaturist and looks desperate. He even tries and sells various items like Gotti sketches on internet auction sites.Other reviewers are correct in that this is only half of the story. Capeci and Mustain seem to ignore disputed facts and simply tell their side of the story without even considering other possibilities.If you are going to get a Gotti book, at least consider Mob Star, Capeci and Mustains other work on the Dapper Don. It's better than this one but all the earlier comments still apply to that as well.

This is an excellent book, which I found a great read, although some of the facts are different from that of other books.IF YOU'RE GOING TO BUY THIS THEN YOU HAVE TO BUY 'UNDERBOSS' by Peter Maas (Sammy Bull's Story).Both books takle a different angle, therefore after reading the two, you can make your own judgement, somewhere in the middle.ENJOY!

The style of writing is what put me off from a better rating..Mustain and Capeci have not given us much more than a summation of court transcripts merged with, no doubt, excerps from FBI and organised crime squad police reports.The attempt to manufacture this collection into a cohesive storyline was a painful experience for this reader.I felt like a Gotti torture victim at times .The fact that Gotti survived so long is the real mystery.The guy had an ego that was apparently fuelled because he lacked the understanding that those above him were instantly aggravated by his style and obvious ambition.The book is no literary tour de force, but is interesting, with anecdotes of the characters surrounding this particular generation of Cosa Nostra.

This book goes into great detail on the life and crimes of the infamous Mafia Don John Gotti and all those that were part of his criminal organisation. If like me you are fascinated with the underworld and like to read about how these people got away with so much for so long, then i highly suggest you buy this book. This is just 1 of about 40 books i have on the Italian/American Mafia and it is up there with the best of them simply because Gotti was always in the spotlight and brought the Gambino family out into the open through the media circus he was caught up in....which ultimately brought it crashing down from the New York giant that it was....The Gambino family carried on, but was never the same since...there have been many arrests since...but none that caught the public eye like that of Gotti's.

this book was absolutely mind blowing.it starts off telling you about the young john gotti,then tracing his life all the way up to him getting jailed for life without parole. As you read this book you start seeing what a brutal man he really was, but nearing the end you actually start to feel sorry for him on how he was treated and victimised.dont get me wrong, this man was an arch crimminal, but he really grows on you through out the book. to cut it short, go out and buy it you will thank me later

i read underboss the sammy the bull book and so i thought i would buy this and see things from another point of view. the story starts off good but it soon gets too bogged down with talk about the legal system and goes on too much about the prosecutors and which jurisdiction hes going to court in. it became a bit of a struggle to finish but if mafia type books are for you then i suppose its worth a read.

I think this book is a must read for people who are fans of John Gotti and for people who are generaly intersted in organozed crime. This book not only portrays an acurate picture of the rise and fall of John Gotti but it also gives readers a picture of the inside workings of the Gambino crime family. It is very interesting and you can learn a lot.